July 28, 2012

Greenies Hate It, But Coal's Not Going Away

North Antelope Rochelle Mine near Gillette, Wyo., owned and operated by Peabody Energy, can fill one train an hour with some 16,000 tons of high-quality, low-sulfur coal. 'Round the clock. For at least the next five or six decades.

Somebody's going to burn it, though with Barky's EPA shutting down coal-fired power plants across the country and subsidizing ecologically disastrous (and viewshed-ruining) "green" energy boondoggles across thousands of miles of land (primarily in the Western states), it likely won't be us. That coal's going to be heading to Asia, to China, and to other countries. And since they don't have our environmeddle restrictions, we'll get the emissions.

Better to sell it to them, because this coal's low in sulfur - which means less acid rain for us. Actually, it might be better for us to burn the high-sulfur content stuff, because our coal-fired power plants have scrubbers to reduce emissions. Let the Chinese and the Asians buy the high-grade material, and let's build facilities to ease the logistics of getting it to them.

Environmeddlists seethe over the very idea, but the fact is that this one coal mine produces about 50% more energy on an average day than all of the country's solar panels and wind turbines combined. Moreover, the mine covers just 80 square miles, while domestic wind projects alone cover about 9,400 square miles.

The Greenies would have us believe that coal, oil, and natural gas are all evil. That's their religion, and they're sticking to it - just as did followers of Jim Jones. The rest of us understand that economies require energy - and the heavily-subsidized "green" alternatives aren't able to provide it. Not even close.

Isn't it interesting that Greenies are willing to ignore little things like the Endangered Species Act when it comes to their windmills and solar installations, even as they employ that very same Act to litigate against logging, development, and other economic activities?